It’s hard to tell where and when, but at some point, the term “student-athlete” went from being a noble concept to a tongue-in-cheek joke. Especially when referring to major college football, which has seen its share of scandals involving student-athletes in recent years.
However, a recent study by The Institute For Diversity And Ethics In Sports (TIDES) shows that the graduation rates have increased slightly for the 70 teams competing in this year’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision’s postseason bowls. While that may sound promising, there is still work to be done, as disparities between African-American student-athletes and their White counterparts remain significant.
Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, said, “The academic success of FBS football student-athletes continued to grow this year. The overall football student-athlete Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for bowl-bound teams improved from 68 percent to 69 percent.”
However, the graduation rate for African-American student-athletes remains 20 percentage points below that of their White counterparts, 62 percent compared to 82 percent. The study also found that 19 percent of this year’s bowl-participating schools graduated less than half of their African-American athletes, while only 1 out of 70 had a Caucasian graduation rate of less than 50 percent.
Lapchick told the Associated Press that he thinks the recent awareness raised by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and NAACP President Ben Jealous has been instrumental in pushing schools to make academic progress by athletes a priority.
“I think the threat of the loss of scholarships has great meaning for coaches today,” Lapchick said. “Even with football teams being so much bigger than in basketball, coaches want to protect those slots. They have become more engaged themselves and are getting the resources into academic affairs to get students who maybe weren’t as engaged in high school to be more successful at their universities.”
According to the study, African-American student-athletes at bowl-participating schools are actually graduating at a higher rate than African-American males who do not participate in intercollegiate athletics.
